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over a woman I'll just look at this paper and find a quick cure.' He smiled sadly and went on:
'Comrade, you know my party record, don't you? Well, I did what I did, and many things I
shouldn't have done as well, chiefly for the purpose of getting myself to Russia and looking for the
girl. How am I to behave from now on ?'
'Go right on fighting for the Cause.'
'But my cause was Sonia and now someone else has taken it over.'
Don Camillo shrugged his shoulders.
'Think it through, Comrade, that's all I can say. I've talked to you not as a Party comrade but
as a friend. In my Party capacity, I know nothing of the whole affair.'
'I do, though, to my sorrow,' mumbled Gibetti as he threw himself back on to the bed.
*
The group met over the dinner table, all except for Gibetti, who was feeling sick. Comrade
Oregov was in good spirits, because the afternoon programme had gone off well. Comrade
Bacciga was sitting beside Don Camillo, and managed to whisper in his ear:
'Comrade, I've made my deal, exchanged my money and bought another mink stole.'
'But how are you going to get it through the customs back home?' asked Don Camillo. 'You
can't very well pass off a mink stole as part of your personal linen.'
'I'll sew it on to my overcoat collar. Plenty of men's overcoats are trimmed with fur. By the
way, our reactionary press was, as usual, in error.'
'I don't doubt it,' said Don Camillo.'But what's the connexion ?'
'You told me that, according to the rate of exchange quoted by the reactionary papers, I'd get
twenty roubles for every dollar. But I got twenty-six.'
The vodka was going around and the conversation grew more and more gay.
'Comrade Tarocci,' said Scamoggia,'it's a shame you couldn't come with us. A visit to the
tomb of Lenin is some thing never to be forgotten.'
'Quite right,' said Comrade Curullu, who was sitting nearby. 'To see the last resting-place of
Stalin makes a tremendous impression.'
The mention of Stalin was not exactly tactful, and Don Camiilo hastened to fill in the awkward
silence that followed.
'Of course,' he said diplomatically. 'I remember how impressed I was by the tomb of
Napoleon in Paris. And Napoleon is a pigmy alongside Lenin.'
But Comrade Curullu, fortified by vodka, would not stand for a change of subject.
'Stalin, that's the great man,' he said gloomily.
'Well spoken, Comrade,' chimed in Comrade Li Friddi. "Stalin is the outstanding hero of
Soviet Russia. Stalin won the war.'
Comrade Curullu downed another glass of vodka.
'Today, in the line of workers waiting to visit the tomb, there were some American tourists.
The girls were dressed as if they were going to a preview of a Marilyn Monroe picture. Little idiots,
I call them!'
'Quite right, Comrade,' Li Friddi assented, 'I was just as disgusted as you. Moscow isn't Capri
or Monte Carlo.'
'If Stalin were still alive, those little idiots wouldn't have been allowed to enter the country.
Stalin had the capitalists scared to death.'
Peppone, with the aid of Comrade Nadia Petrovna, was doing his best to distract Comrade
Oregov's attention. But at a certain point Comrade Oregov pricked up his ears and demanded a
translation of what was being said at the other end of the table. Peppone sent a mute S.O.S.
signal to Don Camillo.
'Comrades,' Don Camillo said gravely to the two recalcitrants, 'nobody denies the merits of
Stalin. But this is neither the time nor the place to speak of them.'
'Truth knows neither time nor place!' Comrade Curullu insisted. 'Even if today the Soviet
Union has conquered the moon, the truth is that the Party has lost the revolutionary inspiration for
which two hundred and fifty thousand men laid down their lives.'
'Policies have to be adapted to the circumstances of the moment,' Don Camillo timidly
objected.'The end is what counts, not the means.'
'The fact is that Stalin got everything he wanted without bothering to set foot outside the
Soviet Union,' insisted Curullu.
Don Camillo relapsed into silence and let the vodka take over. Little by little, all the comrades,
except for Peppone, were overcome by nostalgia for Stalin. Peppone sat with clenched jaws,
waiting for the inevitable explosion. Comrade Oregov confabulated excitedIy with Comrade Nadia
Petrovna and then leaped to his feet, pounding with his fist on the table. His eyes were feverishly
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